VA 


i'  ‘S'loA^y 

From  THE  NATIONAL  SECURITY  LEAGUE 

19  WEST  44th  STREET,  NEW  YORK 

E.  L.  Harvey,  Publicity  Director 


WHAT  THE  VICTORY  OR  DEFEAT  OF 

GERMANY  MEANS  TO  EVERY  AMERICAN 

( Contributed,  by  FRANK  H.  SIMONDS  to  the  National  Security  League’s 
campaign  of  Patriotism  Through  Education .) 

If  the  American  people  would  review  the  sequence  of  events  which 
led  to  American  entrance  into  the  war,  they  would  perceive  that  we  are 
fighting  because  the  Germans  attacked  the  lives  and  the  liberties  and  the 
properties  of  American  citizens.  They  would  perceive  that  Germany 
adopted  the  doctrine  which  would  make  it  necessary  either  for  the  Ameri¬ 
can  people  to  abandon  the  seas  or  to  fight.  They  would  perceive  also 
that  a  logical  extension  of  this  German  policy  was  the  offer  of  American 
territory  to  Japan  and  Mexico  and  the  building  up  of  a  huge  conspiracy 
inside  the  United  States  against  the  peace  and  order  of  this  country. 

This  is  why  we  are  at  war  with  Germany.  So  long  as  Germany 
pursues  this  policy,  we  must  fight,  and  we  must  fight  because  it  strikes 
at  our  own  existence,  at  our  lives,  at  all  we  have,  at  every  right  which 
is  sacred  and  at  every  right  which  is  guaranteed  by  international  and 
domestic  law.  As  long  as  Germany  continues  to  pursue  toward  the 
United  States  the  policy  which  she  has  adopted  and  which  brought  us 
into  the  war,  American  aid  and  American  support  will  necessarily  be 
given  to  the  nations  and  to  the  aims  of  nations  fighting  Germany,  because 
our  armies  and  our  wealth  will  add  to  the  burden  of  Germany  and  de¬ 
duct  from  her  strength  and  resources. 

This  is,  as  far  as  we  are  concerned,  an  American  war.  It  is  a  war 
fought  in  defence  of  American  rights,  and  our  aim  is  the  preservation 
of  those  rights  for  which  governments  are  constituted  and  which,  in  the 
last  analysis,  are  the  main  business  of  nations. 


